I wrote this post from the air, flying Paris to Madrid last Sunday evening!

Hello from mid flight from Paris to Oviedo and then on to Madrid.

We have been in Paris for the last 4 days and it has been a lovely little getaway.  We met my parents there and enjoyed our time together almost as much as we enjoyed Paris itself.

This is a quick recap- let’s look back.

We had one of those disturbingly early flights on Thursday that seem like a great idea when you first book it but then seem like a terrible idea at 3.30am when the alarm is going off. Apart from nearly missing the flight, all went smoothly and by 10am we were in Paris and by noon at our first boulangerie (also a random pretzel store?).

We haven’t been in Paris since pre-mazal and it was even better and grander than I remembered. People have told us that “Paris has gone downhill”, but we thought it was wonderful. The buildings, the architecture, the Seine, the streets, the people, the stores, the restaurants and bistros. I want to be French.

We dropped the bags at our dump of a hotel and went to meet my parents, stopping along the way at a boulangerie for sandwiches and yummy pastries.

We met up with my parents and from there went with my dad for a tour of the Notre Dame, Latin Quarter and Jewish Quarter. We basically just went from food stop to food stop.

We got falafel and schwarma and burekas and then headed back to the hotel for naps and to refresh. Luis ended up sleeping the entire night but I met up later with my parents for Chinese and then a glass of wine on one of those parisian terraces that I love so much.

The next morning we met for breakfast (mediocre because we realized after that the pastries are vegan. No eggs? No butter????). 

From there we went to the Shoa Memorial, which was massive, informative, impactful, and with more to read than we had time for.

There is no easy transition from the Shoa (Holocaust) to Crepes, so I’ll just go for it – We spent quite a bit of time there before going to get a crepe and a piece of quiche.

We walked to the river and met up with my mom for a fantastic River cruise with dinner included, stopping for pictures along the way. Luis and I agreed that Paris, with the sunshine of Madrid, would be close to perfect.

The cruise was excellent. The food was delicious, the drinks were plentiful, and the views were great. 100% recommended. The only thing missing was a beautiful sunset. And they all laughed at me when I said we would see the Statue of Liberty, but lo and behold…

We were absolutely stuffed afterwards (and a bit drunk with 2 bottles of wine included) so we walked all the way home.

On our last full day, we started with real, butter-filled pastries and coffee.

We them took the metro to the arc de triumph and walked to my mom’s friends apartment to visit her for an hour or so.

When we finished we headed to the catacombs where we had a 5.45pm tour. Interesting and sort of gave me the heebie jeebies.

For dinner we walked to Chez Glaidnes, a restaurant that I wrote about almost 8 years ago. We very much enjoyed it and all left satisfied but not crazy stuffed. We ended our last night on a parisian terrace for tea and a chocolate crepe before calling it a night.

Our last morning was full of more pastries, coffee and people watching.

By 7pm tonight we were reunited with baby pachi who slept for like 20 hours straight after spending 4 days at Doggie Daycare. He was wiped!